jerk

In our last three posts ((http://www.cissik.com/blog/2017/01/power-development-part-i-foundations/ , http://www.cissik.com/blog/2017/02/power-development-part-ii-cautions/ , and http://www.cissik.com/blog/?p=1723&preview=true ) we covered background information behind training for power, cautions with it, and principles behind program design. With this post we’ll cover some of the tools and strategies that are used in power training. The following is a list of tools and strategies used in power training. It’s not a comprehensive list, but it does cover the major ones: Olympic lifts Plyometrics Jump squats Bench throws Power lifting...

Periodically I post on social media about the value of the big five movements in a strength and conditioning program. These five movements are the press, pull, row, squat, and Olympic lift. The gist of my posts is that you can’t go wrong if you base your athletic strength and conditioning programs around those five movements. Now, when I post this I invariably get comments from people who are concerned about the lack of variety. Or the lack of...

Strength and conditioning coaches come from a variety of athletic background and all have unique histories with training. Just like with everyone else, it’s not unusual for a strength and conditioning coach to become myopic when it comes to how they train athletes, particularly when they have a background in a strength sport like weightlifting or powerlifting. The Olympic lifts (the snatch, clean, and jerk) and their variations is an area where strength and conditioning coaches can be inflexible...

The things that make one an elite weightlifter are fascinating to study. In 1984 Kauhanen et al published a study looking at 13 Finnish weightlifters. Seven of the lifters were elite lifters, being national champions and record holders and six were district-level weightlifters (see the table below to see the differences in their lifts). The intent of the study was to see if the differences in their performances could be explained by how they performed the lifts. Elite District...

The training of Olympic lifters is always fascinating to many people that are interested in strength and conditioning because it is very different from how bodybuilders approach training. It’s not unusual for Olympic lifters to squat, clean, snatch, and jerk four to six times a week. This works against most traditional approaches to bodybuilding, which would want several days of rest before performing a given lift again. The training of great Eastern European Olympic lifters has also been interesting for...